The term corporation refers to different kinds of student organizations worldwide. Generally, universities in the various European countries have student organizations called corporations. The name is derived from the Latin corporatio meaning a body or group. There was an earlier type of student organization, called a nation from the Middle Ages, where students from all over Europe at a particular university would unite according to national (actually regional) lines. Today, many student organizations in Sweden, Finland, and, to a lesser degree, Scotland are still termed nations, while most of the rest of European universities, the organizations are considered corporations.

Below are short entries on the organizations found at universities on a country-by-country basis. There are also references to longer articles.

Contents

Sharing common roots, Austrian corporations are quite similar to their German counterparts. While Catholic corporations generally are associated with the Christian-conservative Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) and are generally pro-Austrian, other corporations, especially Burschenschaften, are involved with the right-wing Freedom Party (FPÖ) and can be characterized as German-nationalist organizations.

Corporations in Estonia are very much like those in Germany though foxes (first-year members) do not wear colours, but a black cap instead. Estonian corporations usually have a circinus stitched to their caps, that is, the letters VCFC (an abbreviation for a Latin sentence: Vivat, crescat, floreat corporatio, meaning "Live, grow, prosper corporation") and the initials of the name of the corporation. Corporations are popular in Estonia. Other student organisations or societies with a lengthy tradition, but without the name, corporation, are also commonly referred to as corporations.

Corporations in Finland are called in Finnishosakunta, in English, "nations". The name refers to the historical custom of the continental universities where students usually formed corporations according to their home nations. In Swedish universities, the same practice was followed by the provinces but the name remained. The Finnish version of the name actually is an archaic form of department, and this name was adopted to replace the term "kansakunta" ("nation" in the purely ethnic sense) during the 19th century when the Russian government tried to diminish the importance of nations as political organizations.

Earlier, it was traditional for students to belong to the nations of their provinces. Since 1937, students could resign from their nation, but they still had to pay the fee to the nation throughout their time at the university. This compulsory fee was abolished in the 1960s. Nowadays, the nations are a feature peculiar to the University of Helsinki, the oldest Finnish university and they concentrate on the student culture. There is also a Swedish-speaking nation, Teknologföreningen, at Aalto University School of Science and Technology.

In most universities, the primary form of corporation is an association of students majoring in a particular subject. In the universities of technology, these are called guilds.

In addition to the voluntary corporations, every Finnish university student is also required to be a member of the general student corporation of the university, the Student Union (ylioppilaskunta, studentkår), which has the power to levy a membership fee. The union also has the legal power to represent the students to the university administration and in all other matters. It also organizes the health care of the students.

Corporations in Italy are known as confraternite studentesche or collectively as goliardia (from Goliard), although the latter generally refers to the spirit they follow (conviviality, license, celebrating love and drink, and making satyrical songs).

There are also two German-speaking Catholic corporations. In Rome, the Capitolina, associated with the German CV, and composed mainly of German Theology students. In Bozen, the Meinhardia, associated with the Austrian ÖCV.

Corporations in Latvia follow traditions similar to those in Germany, however "foxes" (first year members) do not wear colours, but a black cap instead with a circinus stitched to it usually made of silver. Although there are some differences, tradition of the Baltic, to include Latvian corporations is still based on 1812th Jena rules. The Baltic branch of German tradition is distinct to Latvian, Estonian, Polish and some German corporations founded at universities of Tartu and Riga. Their umbrella organizations maintain reciprocal links. Umbrella organization for Latvian student corporations is P!K! http://pk.lv/ (Presidium Convent) and for female corporations S!P!K! http://spk.lv/.

Latvian student corporations are closed, lifelong organizations and strictly wear 3 colours. During the Soviet occupation corporations were prohibited but they continued to work abroad, among the Latvian refugees in countries like USA, Canada, Australia, Sweden and Germany. In Latvia corporations renewed operation after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The first Latvian corporation, Lettonia was founded in 1870 at the University of Tartu (then Dorpat). It combined beer, commercium songs, and academic fencing traditions of German corporations with Latvian nationalism and a strong emphasis on Latvian culture. First Latvian corporation in Riga was Selonija, founded in 1880 at the Riga Polytechnicum. The first women's corporation, Daugaviete, was founded in 1921 at the University of Latvia. As of 2004, Latvia has 23 male and 13 female corporations, with about 10,000 members in total.

Corporations in Poland mostly follow traditions similar to those in Germany, however "fuxes" (first year members) do not wear full colours. The first Polish corporation, Konwent Polonia, was established in 1828 by the Polish students of the University of Dorpat. The second and third oldest corporations were established by the Polish students of the Riga Technical University: Arkonia (1879) and Welecja (1883). There were more than one hundred corporations in Poland between 1918 and 1939. During communism in Poland (1944–1989), corporations were forbidden. Today about fifteen corporations continue to be active in Poland, at the universities in Warsaw, Kraków, Poznań, Wrocław, Gdańsk and Toruń

During the first half of the 19th century, it was very common for every student to join such a corporation (or corps in Dutch). At the beginning of the 20th century, more types of student associations were established, and many had a religious basis.

During World War II, all corpora (Latin plural of corps) not willing to subscribe to the new German law that Jewish students no longer could become member of non-commercial unions, the corpora either closed-down or became clandestine organizations. During the 1970s, most of the corporations started to enroll women as fully accepted members. Now, corporations and other student associations are widespread in the Netherlands.

There is a continuous tradition of corporations in Switzerland which goes back to the early 19th century. Especially in its beginnings, political developments had a strong influence on the foundation of corporations and their activities. In the 1840s, the catholic-conservative Schweizerischer Studentenverein was founded as the counterpart of the radical-liberal Schweizerischer Zofingerverein which led to religion playing a more important role in corporation life. Today, many corporations are still active (the Schweizerischer Studentenverein being the biggest umbrella organization), but play a less significant role in society. Swiss corporations call themselves Studentenverbindung and resemble strongly to German Studentenverbindungen.